Local information about Breckenridge and Summit county real estate and information about what's going on in the County.

Monday, November 19, 2012

I-70. Let's Study it to Death

Transportation officials are passing on an opportunity to partner with a private
engineering firm to implement a series of improvements aimed at reducing traffic
on the Interstate 70 mountain corridor.

Two companies, Parsons and HDR,
Inc., submitted co-development proposals in August that laid out plans to make
the expensive task of resolving mounting traffic issues in the corridor
financially feasible. Citing concerns about the risks involved with each of the
proposals, Colorado Department of Transportation officials declined them both.

“We want to go into this slower than just both feet at the same time,”
CDOT project manager Jim Bemelen said.

CDOT paid each of the firms
$125,000 for the rights to the ideas in their proposals. Bemelen said the
stipend is typical and likely wouldn't cover the firms' costs for generating the
proposals.

The Parsons plan, deemed to be the better value of the two,
proposed constructing a toll-based two- or three-lane reversible express lane
facility that would run from

C-470 to Silverthorne, as well as new
tunnel bores at both the Eisenhower and Twin Tunnels in the first of three
phases of improvements. Phase II calls for express lanes to be extended to Vail.
Phase III would have pushed those lanes out to Eagle and included a high-speed
rail system if it was determined to be feasible.

HDR pitched an all-lane
tolling approach.

“Either one could work,” Bemelen said.

But
officials had concerns with both. Though Parsons plan was deemed to be the
better value, it called for the new lanes to extend all the way to Summit County
in the first phase of development to make the project financially feasible. But
CDOT's record of decision, the result of years of studies and investigations
required ahead of the improvement project, didn't cover such a broad solution.

“That's the part that had us nervous,” Bemelen said.

Stakeholder
objections and uncertainty of revenue projections if the project were scaled
down were also cited as concerns.

The I-70 mountain corridor, where
weekend traffic frequently stacks up with tourists commuting between the Front
Range and the mountains, has been a point of debate and discussion among
mountain communities and transportation officials for several years.

After extensive study, CDOT released a programmatic environmental impact
statement released in March 2011 recommending a plan that included a series of
solutions to address the growing traffic problems in the corridor. The estimated
$16-$20 billion package of improvements included a high-speed rail, highway
improvements and new lanes and more strategic approaches to improving traffic.

In July 2011, Parsons submitted an unsolicited proposal for a
co-development agreement for improvements on the corridor. CDOT opened the
process up, inviting other firms to submit proposals as well. Only one other
firm did.

The details of both proposals have been kept under wraps to
protect proprietary information until transportation officials reached a
decision.